Above Average Pittsburgh Pirates Blog

Austin Meadows Rated Pirates Top Prospect for 2017

Baseball America has come out with their rankings of the Top 10 Pirates prospects, and to no surprise, Austin Meadows is now the top prospect in the Pirates system entering 2017.

Meadows was selected by the Pirates in the first round (9th overall) of the 2013 MLB Draft. The 21-year-old has been the Bucs top outfield prospect since 2015.

Despite sustaining an orbital fracture in Spring Training this year, Meadows tore apart the Eastern League with an OPS of .976, thanks in large part to an astounding .611 slugging percentage for AA Altoona. He was promoted to AAA Indianapolis in June where he posted a .757 OPS. Meadows will return to Indianapolis to begin 2017, and should join the Pirates at some point during the season. At the very least, he would be a September call up.